In their inaugural Spartan Dawgs podcast former Spartan athletes Tim Bograkos and Todd Duckett set the premise for this new podcast series.
 
“We’re former MSU athletes who have progressed into life,” says Duckett. “We have families and businesses, and we give back to our community.”
 
The pair’s intention is to “share what our lives are like now.” They’ll bring in fellow former Spartan athletes to talk about how being Spartan athletes has impacted their lives.
 
Bograkos and Duckett dispel the myth that “we’re just athletes,” and Duckett reveals the recent epiphany he had about equating athletics to business. 

They talk about the difference between success and intelligence and discuss how they’re redefining themselves after primarily being known only as athletes for most of their lives.
 
“The beauty of being a Michigan State athlete is the love you get from the community here,” adds Duckett. “And the only thing I could think of to return the love was to give and serve through volunteering.”
 
Transferring the fearlessness they brought to the fields and courts of the Big Ten to their new lives is key says Bograkos.
 
“Fear doesn’t live here, and this is my new passion and I’m going to take my time getting there,” adds Duckett. “And I’m going to dedicate as much time and effort to molding my new self as I did to being an athlete.”
 
Bograkos says “failure doesn’t define a person; failure is just an outcome to an event.”
 
“I’m prepared, focused and ready to move forward,” says Duckett. “The Kalamazoo Public Schools and Michigan State University have given me amazing skills, contacts, power and courage to be who I am.”
 








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2000 national champion Spartan hoopster Andre Hutson joins Todd Duckett and Tim Bograkos for the second Spartan Dawgs podcast conversation.
 
The three former Michigan State University athletes talk more about what brought them back to East Lansing after their athletic careers ended. All three Dawgs talk about the loving and supporting East Lansing community that drew them back to start the next chapters in their lives.
 
The Dawgs talk more, too, about the transition from their all-consuming athletic careers to what’s next in their lives.
 
And they discuss how the discipline required to succeed in athletics mirrors the drive and passion required to be successful in the business world. It’s important, they say, to take full advantage of cultivating the relationship opportunities afforded them while they represent MSU in the arenas and stadiums of the Big Ten and NCAA.
 
Andre speaks for the Dawgs when he closes by saying he learned from his Spartan athletics days about the hard work and passion required to succeed in their business endeavors.


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Spartan Dawgs Todd Duckett, Tim Bograkos, and Andre Hutson discuss how each of them went through the recruiting process. And they talk about how that process has changed to the point where “high school kids are announcing their choices on ESPN,” says Bograkos. Kids now put their own videos on You Tube, and the three say coaches are watching kids earlier, and kids are committing earlier.
 
Duckett was a high-level recruit, Hutson a mid-level recruit, and Bograkos a self-described “extremely low, not on the radar recruit.”
 
Duckett says he got his first recruiting letter in the eighth grade; it came from Wisconsin. Todd says he received 15 to 20 letters a day during the peak of his recruitment. Hutson was recruited first as a football player and says “the first letter I received was a hand-written note from then MSU assistant Mark Dantonio.” 

Bograkos says MSU first recruited him for football and that he likely would have walked on to the Spartan football team had Nick Saban not left the program.
 
Todd, Tim and ‘Dre talk about how their careers were impacted by their parents and about what it’s like for a parent to have a Big Ten athlete in the family.
 
“My dad was at almost every game,” says Duckett. “It didn’t matter where the game was; he’d be there even if he got to see me for just 5 minutes after the game before he had to turn around and drive right back.”
 
Hutson says his mom, too, “made just about every game” and that proximity to home is a big factor for athletes choosing their college.


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Spartan Dawgs Andre Hutson, Tim Bograkos, and Todd Duckett talk about their experiences with their coaches, Nick Saban and Tom Izzo.
 
“I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into with Coach Izzo,” says Hutson. “Tom Crean mostly recruited me, and I never met Coach Izzo until my official visit.”
 
“Coming in I really had no clue what Coach Izzo was about,” adds Hutson. “I just knew Michigan State was a Big Ten school, I loved the players, and I wanted to be in that environment.”
 
“While they’re recruiting you they show you the beauty, not Coach Saban yelling,” jokes Duckett.
 
All three Dawgs say they can see that the tough love they often received from their coaches has carried over into how they carry themselves now in their professional lives.
 
“To look back at it now, you see how they go about building a young man,” says Duckett. “You see how they prepare us to go into life. And the older you get, the more you appreciate it.”
